Chapter 457 - 278: Ghost Cultivator Coveting Nan Ge
In the vast and silent darkness of the grand hall, only a single blood pool emanates a faint glow, shedding an insignificant ray of light into the gloomy surroundings.
“Master, do you hate me?”
Within the blood pool, a sword spirit trembles lightly. The once serene pool is disturbed, casting ripples on its surface. Above this sword spirit, a half-demon maiden stands barefoot, stepping on thin air. She gazes at the profound darkness of the hall with a bewildered expression, lost in self-questioning contemplation.
“What did I do wrong?”
Despite being born less than a day ago, the sword spirit is highly sentient. However, she lacks worldly experience. Her birth was unique, and she had no lineage to inherit. The master who created her only spared her a glance and then left, not taking her with him.
At this moment, the only thing she can think of is why she was abandoned. Though she wants to pursue her master and has the ability to make her physical self fly, she did not follow him immediately when he left her behind.
Even if she now wants to find him, she doesn’t know where to go. All she hopes for is that maybe her master didn’t abandoned her, maybe he just had to leave temporarily for some reason.
Perhaps because she was too weak to be of help, he left her here and didn’t bring her along. She believes she wasn’t really abandoned.
“Is it because I am too weak?”
The sword spirit thinks about the reasons for her abandonment. Her master had only taken a single glance at her when she materialized, then left without a thread of hesitation, never once pausing his footsteps.
“Master, where are you?”
“When will you come back to see me?”
“Master will definitely come back to see me!”
“Why hasn’t Master returned yet?”
The sword spirit’s gaze rests in the direction Feng Qing’an left, hoping that his figure will appear before her eyes once more. But in the lifeless Demon-Suppressing Hall, there is nothing but withered and lifeless demon corpses that keep her company.
Beyond that, there are no other living creatures. Time seems to lose meaning in this place. A moment becomes unbearably long, while thousands of years pass in an instant.
The sword spirit, whose existence is too short, feels she has waited for a long time in her confusion. This endless waiting causes a flicker of resentment to surface in her once clear and bright eyes.
“I must be too useless. That’s why Master didn’t want to bring me along.”
However, the sword spirit’s resentment is directed towards herself; she instinctively believes that her weakness and incompetence caused her master to abandon her.
Just when the sword spirit is sinking into self-chiding and her resentment is about to materialize, the figure she yearns for appears again before her eyes.
Seeing the handsome young man in white robe appear before her, the resentment on the sword spirit’s face instantly vanishes, replaced with a smile as radiant as the morning sun. Overjoyed, the sword spirit is ready to fling herself in the young man’s embrace like a weary bird returning to its nest.
However, before she can do so, she sees a stunningly beautiful maiden standing next to her master. The maiden’s extraordinary aura makes the sword spirit, born within a bloody pool, feel a sense of self-contempt.
“Feng Qing’an, is this the first sword you forged using my elder sister’s method?”
Nan Ge curiously looks over the sword in the blood pool, her gaze resting on the sword spirit maiden. Uncertain if it’s merely an illusion, she feels the young maiden’s appearance and even her clothes bear a striking resemblance to hers. The maiden then naturally shifts her gaze to Feng Qing’an.
“Yes.”
Feng Qing’an looks at the sword spirit maiden who took form from his distracted thoughts and then at the girl standing beside him, Nan Ge. He suddenly realizes something amiss.
Despite the sword spirit coming from his scattered thoughts, her human form is clearly modeled after all he has witnessed and perceived. Hence, both the maiden’s clothes and adornments resemble Nan Ge’s heavily.
After all, when he was generating the sword spirit, he was thinking about a golden-haired, animal-eared little girl. Out of all the sisters he has met till now, Nan Ge’s figure and youthful appearance is closest to what he had in mind. Even till now, the girl hadn’t grown much. She seemed untouched by the ravages of time and the passage of years, as though they made no impact on her.
“So she is the sword spirit of this sword?”
“Yes.”
Feng Qing’an appears emotionless. Bringing Nan Ge here might not have been a good decision. However, Nan Ge was adamant about meeting him. Having grown bored after wandering around the human realm, Nan Ge wished to see him.
Feng Qing’an, naturally, couldn’t refuse. So, he brought her along, partly to show off his first-ever forged sword.
“Feng Qing’an, you’re so amazing. None of the swords my elder sister forged ever came to life like this. And you raised a sword spirit on your first try.”
Although she has lost her past life’s memories, Nan Ge still possesses considerable knowledge. She knows that a living sword spirit coming out of a sword symbolizes something significant.
“Haha.”
In front of Nan Ge, Feng Qing’an couldn’t help but reveal a proud smile. Even if it was thanks to his constitution, wasn’t that constitution his? There was no difference.
“However, she looks a lot like me.”